If your daily duties involve being responsible for anyone else’s life, or even their livelihood, your position ranks higher on the stress meter. (Hint: It’s not surgeons or nurses, like you may think.)

Traveling a lot for work is considered stressful, too.

Working in the public eye can get you on the list (raises two hands and both feet on that one), as does being in a career that’s uber competitive or where layoffs are common. (Hands still up.)

Tight deadlines or an excessively attentive boss can also do you in.

Check out the list to see if your chosen career made the list, or if a job you think should be on there didn’t show up.

19 Responses

Teacher is not on the list? Are you kidding? How stressful is a teacher’s job? EXTREMELY stressful and no way will I believe it did not make the list of the top ten most stressful jobs in 2013. I’ll never understand why, just because many teachers have “summers off,” people do not recognize the stress involved in the job of a teacher.

With all due respect for teachers, I think getting shot at in Afghanistan, saving people from burning homes, and dealing with aggressive drunks all alone in your cab at 3 AM trump “bad parent-teacher conferences” and “kids who cut themselves.”

Teaching is definitely a stressful job but I’d agree that most of the jobs on the Top 10 list definitely beat teaching.

But Laura.. you are obviously not a teacher since you listed “kids who cut themselves” and “bad parent-teacher conferences” as the most stressful parts of teaching. Yeah, right.

I think, truthfully, unless you are an educator, you really have no idea what goes on in schools and what pressures teachers face. Not that you don’t have a right to make a comment, but unless you’ve lived it, you really won’t understand. Not to mention, the stress is much different based upon where you work. I know my job in an inner city school is a lot different than someone who works in an elite private school or a big suburban district.. but still stressful.

As I’ve never walked a mile in any of the jobs listed, I won’t judge them on their stress level. I believe that to a certain degree, the amount of stress in one’s job (or life, for that matter) can be self-inflicted. It is all how you deal with stressful situations.

I’ve met amazingly calm and resilient military personnel who work with disposing of bombs, and they take it all in stride as “just another day at the office.” Now, for me, I’d die of a heart attack before I even finished lacing up my Army boots!

@ #2 Laura C: it’s not just “bad parent-teacher conferences” and “kids who cut themselves.” There are also violent children who tear apart classrooms, assault other students and attack teachers. Some of those “bad parent-teacher conferences” go so badly that teachers get threatened by parents who are seriously off-kilter. (I haven’t touched upon the risk of a school shooting.) Further, this is a list about stress, not about risk to life and limb. Note that Sr. Corporate Executive and PR executive are on the list as well.

Social worker definitely belongs on the list, both in terms of stress and risk to personal safety.

I agree with Laura C! Active duty military and first responders trump all others in my mind. Many firefighters are purely volunteer as many towns/cities can’t afford to have pay-rolled employees. Volunteers give up hours each month to save others, hours spent on training, and hours for many other things related to their job as a firefighter.

Social worker and teacher are definitely two jobs that are incredibly stressful. When I read the headline, I thought to myself that they both belong on a list of stressful jobs (I left teaching, due to the stress, and became a social worker… I’m an idiot). Then I saw this list and can agree that they are all pretty stressful. I can see where most of them beat out teaching and social work… However, I’d have to say that teaching social work have to be a close 11 and 12.

Incidentally, did anyone check out the 10 least stressful jobs? I have been hearing about the medical records tech job as being unstressful for a few years, but haven’t been able to find a place that reports an accurate salary… the site suggested a median salary as 32,500. Not super, but workable. Anyone locally know any medical records techs that make about that much? I have to get out of this socal work gig sooner rather than later…

Department of Motor Vehicles I think should be added on the list. We already have a reputation for being “Awful” people….However the attitude you bring to us is how it will be recipricated. It’s hard to have customers screaming at you saying it is your fault that we can’t do something. ((Yes you’re correct sir…its my fault you got a DUI or a drug charge)). How silly of me!

((Don’t get me wrong there are those people clerks that are going to be miserable no matter what))

I saw this the other day on Facebook from a PR friend. While I totally agree with #1 and God bless them for the job they do, I think the survey criteria are flawed as 5 or 6 of the 11 criteria focus on physical stress. I get it because I know for most of us job stress is mental so the survey was trying to capture physical stress by equating physical harm with physical stress. Many folks sign up willingly for these jobs knowing what could happen as far as bodily harm is concerned so that part is not a stressor to them.

Conversely, the #1 least stressful job of college professor is not what it seems, especially at a research university which is very demanding – research demends, teaching, conferences, you name it. When I was in grad school I did some research for an associate professor trying to make tenure and her schedule was ridiculous – getting an appt with her to review work was next to impossible and emails were returned at 3AM.

You are correct. I am not a teacher, nor a social worker, because I don’t want that kind of stress in my life. I’m just not interested, and I don’t care enough to devote my entire life to a bunch of kids who will probably never appreciate what I did for them.

It’s like being a parent – everyone has expectations of what you “should” do and no matter what you do someone will criticize you for it, and the few who are bad enough to make the news reflect poorly on those who are just trying to do what’s right for their students.

Having worked along side and in Law Enforcement for some 25 years I agree but dis-agree with the Police being allotted #10 as well as Reporters or Journalists even being included. Photo-Journalists, Reporters and Journalists create their own stress especially when writing obviously biased stories and twisting the truth and trying to manipulate the public and the Public not falling for the manipulation as well as “Doctoring” the Photographs for the likes of Nancy Pelosi when the Photos do not meet the Agenda of the Editior. litte sympathy for these people. If they put their life on the line to “get the story” that is their choice, not mine, and well, its their own fault nobody elses so no whining please..

About Police, they generally are their OWN worst enemies. In communities where the Community Orientated Policing methods are used, known as COP’s, there is little job stress and the members of the Community work with the Police to provide a safe and stress free Community. In these Communites there have been documented cases where the Citzens were the Officers “Back up” and helped “subdue” the criminal(s) when the Officer needed it, and those people did not fear a “backlash” from the criminal element either. And the Police did not take it as “those dam civilian again interfering my moment of glory” as one generally finds..

In communities where the Police are basically used as the “enforcers” of all the Laws the Politicans make up or as their “Dogs” there is distrust, mistrust, and generally a poor relationship between the Police and the members of the Community as in “us” against “them” where the Term “Civilian” is a dirty word amongst the Police ranks. And they just love the chance to stomp the heck out of the Public when the Politicans “sic” them upon the Public. Not, my words or thoughts, but taken from a number of FBI Studies about violence against Police when they compared the Communties where COP’s was being used and Commuties where the Police were used as “enforcers” or punishers only.

If the Politcians did what the Majority of people wanted, then generally there would not be a problem it is only when hidden agenda’s come into play upon the part of the Politicans that problems develop and then the Journalists become stressed out having to “cover” in more ways than one the situation as directed by their Editiors and Corporate Boards…

Now granted, when it comes to “Special Interest Groups” who use Public Temper Tantrums when they can’t get their way as most of these small self centered and selfish groups do in order to gain Media exposure who immediatley obliges depending on the Politics or Orders of the Editors, they need to be put in their place and told that their actions are not appreciated or in the interest of the Public and that Public Property is to be Protected against them. Forced compliance or Temper Tantrums divdes the Community and creates ill will towards these selfish people and that is what happened I believe with the Wall Street Movement failure by the Liberals.

Now I have worked in four of the categories listed but the one Category I do not see are Nurses Aides and Registered Nurses who bear the brunt of the down side of life. The Nurses Aids work with the possiblity of their patients dying every day, day after day, and it really begins to have a Toll on you. I had a 13 Patient load at a Seniors Home and left due to burn out due to all my Patients dying.

Registered Nurses not only have to be precise and accurate in everything they do with a Patient, but have to be constantly on edge and watching the Doctors to stop or to Cover for or Correct the errors the Doctors make. 195,000 people die each year because of Medical Errors, the second leading cause of Death in the United States per the Center for Disease Control and the FBI. Firearm deaths came in last at 11,493 which is not broken down into Mafia Hits, gang wars, or drug Dealers which we believe should not be investigated or included because, it’s no great loss to humanity if these people kill each other off.

So I can see why the Media is touting this list as being newsworthy and I actually doubt the validity of it at all, seems a bit self serving and self adoring to me…

Teaching IS working in the public eye, as well as in the eyes of your students and other teachers’ students, other teachers, parents, the school principal, the classroom aides, and the school board members. BIG TIME public eye!

I’m surprised to not see anything medical/health-related here. It’s interesting, really. Does that mean people who work in this field don’t see their caring for people’s health/well-being as stressful? I guess that’s really a good thing.